The art of fitting and measuring drywall pieces being installed in commercial and residential construction projects has not changed much in many years. Typically, a large set square and a stick have been employed. Working on ceilings is extremely difficult and generally two or more persons must work as a team.
In finishing ceilings and walls of ballrooms, dining rooms, etc., certain difficulties may be encountered. For example, when a designer or an architect designates that a circular recessed or drop-down section be fitted into the ceiling, to house a chandelier or the like it is a challenge to accurately fit drywall sheet sections against the perimeter of a circular recess or drop-down section perimeter.
Ultimately, the person installing the drywall, i.e. a drywaller, will make a rough estimation as to distance between points along the circular recessed or drop-down section and a nearby drywall sheet and from these the drywaller will be able to approximately size a drywall sheet to be fitted against a portion of the perimeter of the drop-down or recessed ceiling section. Even after installation of the new piece of drywall, often there is a significant gap along the perimeter section, which must be filled in with further pieces of drywall and mortar-mix. As a result, significant time is wasted fixing and finishing the installed drywall ceiling edges.
At the corners of the ceiling, a designer or an architect may designate that the corners be angled, such that the ceiling will resemble a pentagon, hexagon, or a triangular alcove. Sizing drywall sheets, to fill in these ceiling perimeter sections have been, to date, time consuming and messy.
To size drywall for such alcoves, it is required to section the ceiling of the alcove off into parts, into imaginary right angled triangles and rectangles. The imaginary triangles will have a right angled base along an edge of a previously mounted piece of drywall which is perpendicular to an apex in the alcove. The object is to find the length of the base and the height of the imaginary right angled triangle. Using the existing method, a long, and relatively narrow "working" triangular piece of drywall, preferably having a right angled corner, is used to determine the imaginary right angled triangle's end point on its base, at its right angle corner. By slidably pressing the working triangular piece of drywall's base against the edge of the previously mounted piece of drywall, while the apex of the triangular piece of drywall is horizontal, and aimed at the apex of the alcove, the end point of the base of the imaginary triangle, at its right angled corner, may be determined.
The problem with the above mentioned method is that various lengths of the long, and relatively narrow, "working" triangular pieces of drywall are required. As such, each time an approximate length is created, drywall material is wasted. In addition, error will generally occur when eyeballing the narrow triangle's apex which is being attempted to be inline with the alcove's apex.
Once the drywaller thinks he has lined up the "working" triangle's right angled edge with the apex in the alcove, the drywaller will mark the corresponding point along the edge of the previously mounted piece of drywall. The determination of this point will aid determining the base length and height of the imaginary right angled triangle, and a drywall section may be sized and cut to fill in a portion of the unfinished ceilings alcove area.
Unfortunately again, with the above mentioned approximation method, there are usually significant gaps along the edges of the ceiling to be filled in with further pieces of drywall and mortar-mix, in the alcove, because the base length and the height of the imaginary triangle was inaccurately determined. As a result, significant time is wasted fixing and finishing the installed drywall ceiling edges. A more accurate method of finding the base length and height of the imaginary triangle would alleviate much of the need for fixing and finishing the drywall ceiling edges.